Current ethical controversies
Laboratory design 10 ethical dilemmas in science for , 01/13/2016 - 8: michelle taylor, editor-in-chief, and university of notre annual list of ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology includes some surprising issues—like a barbie—as well as some not-so-surprising technologies like the fourth consecutive year, the john j. Reilly center for science, technology and values at the university of notre dame has released its annual list of emerging ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology for 2016. According to the center, the list is “designed to get people thinking about potential ethical dilemmas before controversial science or technology goes mainstream. A large research project already underway is collecting drops of newborns’ blood to fully map their genetic code, thereby screening for all current and future health , u.
Nih is currently funding multiple studies to investigate the best use of rapid whole genome sequencing for newborns. Are extremely skeptical that the procedure is feasible and say it would be unethical to perform the procedure when it hasn’t been proven in animal studies. Scientists are actively working on the technology for medical reasons, such as to save premature or high-risk babies, or to help women who are unable to much of the technology to start experimenting with growing a human fetus already exists, human trials are at least 10 years away due to legal and ethical implications. Exoskeletons for the elderly—technology that aids labor but postpones a global scale, current birthrates are decreasing and the population is getting older.
0031pmcid: pmc2726839ethical issues in stem cell researchbernard lo and lindsay parhamprogram in medical ethics, the division of general internal medicine, and the department of medicine, university of california san francisco, san francisco, california 94143address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: dr. The reprogramming of somatic cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells avoids the ethical problems specific to embryonic stem cell research. These ethical and policy issues need to be discussed along with scientific challenges to ensure that stem cell research is carried out in an ethically appropriate manner. This article provides a critical analysis of these issues and how they are addressed in current policies.
Scientists plan to differentiate pluripotent cells into specialized cells that could be used for r, human stem cell (hsc) research also raises sharp ethical and political controversies. The reprogramming of somatic cells to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (ips cells) avoids the ethical problems specific to embryonic stem cells. Table 11 summarizes the ethical issues that arise at different phases of stem cell 1ethical issues at different phases of stem cell researchii. Multipotent stem cellsadult stem cells and cord blood stem cells do not raise special ethical concerns and are widely used in research and clinical care.
However, human embryonic stem cell (hesc) research is ethically and politically controversial because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Several ethical concerns come into play when a frozen embryo is donated, including informed consent from the woman or couple donating the embryo, consent from gamete donors involved in the creation of the embryo, and the confidentiality of donor information. Again, rather than discard such frozen embryos, it is logistically feasible to deidentify them and give them to r, the ethical justifications for allowing deidentified biological materials to be used for research without consent do not always hold for embryo research (13). For example, one rationale for allowing the use of deidentified materials is that the ethical risks are very low; there can be no breach of confidentiality, which is the main concern in this type of research.
The personnel responsible for maintaining this confidential database and contacting any donor should not be part of any research research using fresh oocytes donated for research raises several additional ethical concerns as well, as we next discuss (21). Ethical concerns about oocyte donation for researchconcerns about oocyte donation specifically for research are particularly serious in the wake of the hwang scandal in south korea, in which widely hailed claims of deriving human scnt lines were fabricated. Reimbursement to oocyte donors for out-of-pocket expenses presents no ethical problems because donors gain no financial advantage from participating in research. The major ethical issue is whether donors appreciate key information about oocyte donation, not simply whether the information has been disclosed to them or not.
However, creating human scnt stem cell lines has not only been scientifically impossible to date but is also ethically controversial (34,35). In rebuttal, however, some argue that pluripotent entities created through scnt are biologically and ethically distinct from embryos (36). However, use of fetal tissue is ethically controversial because it is associated with abortion, which many people object to. Currently there is a phase 1 clinical trial in batten’s disease, a lethal degenerative disease affecting children, using neural stem cells derived from fetal tissue (43,44).
Because of unresolved problems with ips cells, which currently preclude their use for cell-based therapies, most scientists urge continued research with hesc (49). The president’s council on bioethics called ips cells “ethically unproblematic and acceptable for use in humans” (39). Neither the donation of materials to derive ips cells nor their derivation raises special ethical issues. Injection of human stem cells into the brains of nonhuman animals will be required for preclinical testing of cell-based therapies for many conditions, such as parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s disease, and r, some downstream research could also raise ethical concerns.
The injection of human neural progenitor cells into nonhuman animals has raised ethical concerns about animals developing characteristics considered uniquely human (56,57). However, these concerns are particularly salient for ips cells because of the widespread perception that these cells raise no serious ethical problems and because they are likely to play an increasing role in stem cell . Although supporting medical innovation under very limited circumstances, the international society for stem cell research has decried such use of unproven hsc clinical trials should follow ethical principles that guide all clinical research, including appropriate balance of risks and benefits and informed, voluntary consent. Additional ethical requirements are also warranted to strengthen trial design, coordinate scientific and ethics review, verify that participants understand key features of the trial, and ensure publication of negative findings (59).
The crucial ethical issue about informed consent is not what researchers disclose in consent forms or discussions, but rather what the participants in clinical trials understand. Institutional oversight of stem cell researchhuman stem cell research raises some ethical issues that are beyond the mission of institutional review boards (irbs) to protect human subjects, as well as the expertise of irb members. Some ethical issues in hesc research do not involve human subjects’ protection, for example the concern that transplanting human stem cells into nonhuman animals might result in characteristics that are regarded as uniquely human. The stem cell research oversight committee (scro)an institutional scro with appropriate scientific and ethical expertise, as well as public members, should be convened at each institution to review, approve, and oversee stem cell research (18,69,70).
However, ethical concerns arise if researchers work with lines that were derived in other jurisdictions under conditions that would not be permitted at their home institution. Researchers and scros need to distinguish core ethical standards that are accepted by international consensus—informed consent and an acceptable balance of benefits and risks—from standards that vary across jurisdictions and cultures. Using lines whose derivation violated core standards would erode ethical conduct of research by providing incentives to others to violate those review process should focus on those types of hsc derivation that raise heightened levels of ethical concern (71). However, the derivation should be consistent with the ethical and legal standards in place at the time the line was summary, hsc research offers exciting opportunities for scientific advances and new therapies, but also raises some complex ethical and policy issues.
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